In reading the many other threads and the speculation of what each of the post X3 characters will be doing it got me thinking about Days of Future Past and what the storyline might be.

So here is the question...

We know that the past storyline will be in 1973. I don't know where the specific date came from, but I've seen it written so many times I've come to accept it.

But as far as the post X3 year everyone thus far, including myself, has been assuming it will be present time (give or take).

So let's start with that possibility...

If it is present day, say 2013, we are 7 years after X3.

- Beast is probably still acting as a mutant liason to the government (and with no Kelsey Grammer announced to be in the flick, we have to assume Beast (old) will not be there).

- Rouge had taken the cure, but did her powers come back? If so, how will that be explained to the audience? Is she still "with" Bobby? Since that is the only story arc that makes her real (IMO) then I think it has to still be the case.

- Bobby (and all of the others) should have graduated by now. Are they helping to keep the school going? Has Bobby developed his powers even further? I think the whole "my family doesn't accept me" storyline would be old.

- Colossus and Kitty. In the comics they had a relationship. I would love to see that developed. Their only other purpose could be to create envy or jealosy for Rogue/Bobby...

- Professor X. He was dead, remember? So will they go the route of him now being in the body of his twin comatose brother? How would that be explained? Would he be at the X-mansion running the school, or has he stayed away? And if so, why?

- What other X-characters are there? Any new ones? Is there enough screentime to focus on others/students?

So, as you can see, if they go the route of present day, 7 years after X3, the storyline becomes difficult. How do the current X-men apply to a DOFP storyline and how do you explain all of the things that were screwed up in X3 (Prof. X dead, his mind being in his brother's body, Rogue's powers, who have the students been since, etc.).

Of course, who is to say that it will be 2013?

In the comics DOFP took place in the future. Most of the X-men were dead, which provided the tombstone scene, which I think is very powerful and needs to be in this movie. It also had the scene where Wolverine got blasted by a sentinal. Another powerful scene that would look really good in the movie. But to go that route most of the post X3 mutants need to be dead. Kind of hard to start off with them dead when we know the actors are coming back?

It is possible that they will only be in the revised present (AOA?) once the past has been altered.

Or better yet, how about start in present day, have he school attacked by Sentinals. Most of the X-men (and students) would be killed. This could include Rogue, Bobby, Colossus and Kitty. They would have fought very hard, but in the end lost. Maybe some are captured. Wolverine could be the only one to get away, so someone is there to bury those who died. Then have the words (10 years in the future) come up on the screen with Wolverine saving some young, female mutant from hounds or Sentinals...

Are we going to be sometime in the future and not in specifically 2013 at the start of the movie? If so the remaining mutants could be in a sentinal controlled internment camp while most of the others are dead. This would be more per the comic...

This storyline would not have a changed future because something was changed in the past. Instead it would be a dystopian future because of something that DID happen in the past and a desire to alter the present by changing the past. Again, this is more per the comic and does not require a physical timetravel, just someone contacting the past mentally or technologically so the 1973 X-men can "fix" the past...

Now my assumption is that Singer will do an Age of Apocolypse movie next or sometime in the next couple of years. The AOA storyline has someone (Legion) going back in time and changing the past (killing Prof. X by accident) which turns the present into the AOA.

So if this will be the next or one of the next stories, and it almost requires the past being changed (Xavier being killed), why use almost the same storyline (traveling back in time to change the past) twice? Wouldn't Singer want the DOFP to be different from the next movie (AOA)?

So that really creates 3 main questions...

#1: Will there be a physical timetravel?

#2: Will the post X3 year be 2013, 2007 or sometime in the future?

#3: Will it be a Sentinal controlled dystopian present at the beginning of the movie, or will it be a normal present that becomes dystopian because someone changes the past which requires someone to go back (or contact the past) and fix it?

since their going back to the 70s, setting in the present (of whenever the movie comes out) or a year or two ahead, even, still gives them a large enough time gap for things to be significantly different (as well as allow for the age different between the actors)

but, I usually prefer them to thing ambiguous about the timeline, like the other movies with a "the not too distant future" tag line

We don't even know what year the trilogy was suspose to be set In.Before first Class they often keep when they were taking place vague.X2 took place a month after X-Men.It's unclear how much time took place between X2 and and Last Stand.Origins took place 15 years before trilogy.But unclear when exactly the main part of film took place.

From what i remember X-Men 1 was set in the not to distant future, however with the way the world around them was portrayed you might as well ground it to the year it was released - 2000 - X2: X-Men United was supposed to have happened 6 months later and then X-Men 3 again was only months away... Essentially for all we know the last film was roughly aged between 2001 to early 2002. Even though when the last one was made it was 2006.

However i choose not to view it like that, i like the comic book ethos of where characters seem to age half has fast as normal humans. So for example a year in our world seems to only be 6 months to the x-men, so the dont seem to age and they kind of avoid explaining what year they are in or events in the past to make it so vague that the characters become more timeless.

In theory, Cyclops was a teenager in 1963 during his debute in the x-men, so for example lets say he was 18, if he aged with the times cyclops would now be 68 years old... does he look 68? another example, Charles Xavier - had to have been in his mid to late 30's lets just say 35 during the first comic that would make him now 85

In the comics i believe Cyclops is only in his 40's and Xavier in his 60's - and i think that is what the movie franchise should do with timeing. cause it would be impossible...

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Logically there is nothing to say that

X-Men Origins: Wolverine pt.1 set in 1845, 1865, 1918, 1944
X-Men First Class: pt.1 1944
X-Men First Class: pt.2 1962
X-Men Days Of Future Past: 1972
X-Men Origins: Wolverine pt.2 set in 1975, 1981
X-Men 1 set in 2000
X2: X-Men United set in 2003
X-Men: The Last Stand set in 2006
X-Men: Days Of Future Past Pt.2 set in 2013

Everyones ages would tie in but the only two characters that have caused a stir is Gambit and Rogue being in two different timezones however think about it...

Gambit in X-Men Origins Wolverine looked roughly passable as a teenager, although illegal to gamble past 21 i would imagine i figure gambit must be roughly 18 around that part of the movie set in 1981.
Rogue in X-Men 1 were saying is set in 2000 (which were classing as the not to distant future) was what 16 when she joined the x-men? now saying that by x-men 3 and now the year is 2006 that would make her then 22, Gambit would be 43 yeah bit of an age gap but think about this... The actress anna paquin is 30 and her partner and fellow work colleague is 43 so when you look at it, pairing a young Rogue with an Old Gambit wouldnt be that bad a thing i suppose.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine pt.1 set in 1845, 1865, 1918, 1944
X-Men First Class: pt.1 1944
X-Men First Class: pt.2 1962
X-Men Days Of Future Past: 1972
X-Men Origins: Wolverine pt.2 set in 1975, 1981
X-Men 1 set in 2000
X2: X-Men United set in 2003
X-Men: The Last Stand set in 2006
The Wolverine set in 2013
X-Men: Days Of Future Past Pt.2 set in 2014

Who cares? Does this have any importance to the plot? If not, it doesn't matter. Years in movies often bring only confusion and errors, so I really don't think the number makes any difference.

Although I agree that the years of some of the related movies (Wolverine Origins, First Class, The Wolverine, etc.) don't matter; the year of the present Days of Future Past does.

We are trying to determine if the storyline will be that the world has degenerated into, over the years, a sentinal controlled dystopian future (per the comic book DOFP storyline) or will start not long after X3 and due to someone going back and changing the past (killing a Senator, President, an X character, etc.) the future (present) changes around the present day characters into the sentinal controlled dystopian future.

If the present day storyline happens not long after X3 then an argument could be made that not enough time has gone by to allow for the government to develop Sentinals who take things over. This might support the storyline of some baddie contacting or traveling back in time and altering the past thus creating the sentinal controlled future or a storyline where it might start within a few years after X3 showing the development of the Sentinals and then moving ahead to "sometime in the future" where the X-men are mostly all either dead or captured and in internment camps. This might also give us the indication that there might be the loner Wolverine scene saving some young mutant and then showing him getting blasted down to his adamantium skeleton...